|
[img width=700 height=448]https://i.imgur.com/E8pYZtT.jpg[/img]
I read Ernest Cline's dystopian, reference-laden young adult novel Ready Player One in 2015 after it was recommended to me by my wife. Though I enjoyed the book, I felt that the reliance on references of 80's pop-culture was a little overwhelming. When I heard that the book was going to be adapted into a film, I was intrigued. What would it be like to have the many intellectual properties referred to in the novel seen on the big screen together? Even with Steven Spielberg at the helm, and the original author contributing to the screenplay, could a coherent story be told with all the pop-culture overlaying the action? I recently checked out the film with my wife, and here are some quick, spoiler-free thoughts.
Continue reading RF Cinema: Ready Player One
[img width=700 height=393]http://assets2.ignimgs.com/2014/06/24/ready-player-one-book-art-1280jpg-b68ca1_1280w.jpg[/img]
This past Christmas, I was fortunate enough to get a copy of Ready Player One from the wife as one of my gifts. She’s always been good with gift-giving and I attribute this to her knowing me pretty well after being together for 19 years, and a little thing I like to call an Amazon Wishlist (if you don’t have a Wishlist and share it with your loved ones, I highly suggest it). Anyway, I’ve had the book for 10 months now, I’ve picked it up and put it down several times and it wasn’t until recently (during my travels to RWX and a subsequent beach vacation) that I settled in and gave it a go. You see, I’m kind of what you would call an opportunistic reader. I read when a good opportunity presents itself and those opportunities are typically when I’m not around my kids or when I’m on a nice warm beach…..so yeah, pretty few and far between. It’s not that I don’t love to read, I use to do it all of the time, but a busy adult life and being heavily force-fed a lot of “classics” I didn’t want to read in grad school kind of sucked a lot of the enjoyment out of it for me. Again, I still love to read, it’s just that I’m a lot pickier about what I choose to dive into these days.
Ready Player One sat near the top of my stack for those 10 months, and did so due to strong recommendations from site members and a New York Times reviewer’s blurb on the cover which reads, “Willie Wonka meets The Matrix.” (The Huffington Post’s “The grown-up’s Harry Potter,” not so much a draw for me.) Was the New York Times right? Well, in a way. Mr. Cline takes great liberty in borrowing pieces of 70’s and 80’s nostalgia to craft a story which tugs at the core of his reader and unlocks images from the deep recesses of our childhood memories. You see, Ready Player One is more than a book, it’s a love letter—one directed at the late 30 and 40+ year old dinosaurs who grew up during the infancy of video games and helped cultivate what we now so lovingly refer to as “geek culture.” However, to limit the book to a specific audience is not only unfair, but inaccurate. Any lover of science fiction, apocalyptic landscapes, high-tech gadgets, action, and even romance, will appreciate and enjoy this book. However, it doesn’t hurt to have a good working knowledge of, or at least a healthy interest in, early video games and 80’s culture.
Continue reading Banana's Rotten Reviews: Ready Player One
|
